The Ballad of Pandora

A work of art that depicts a grouping of inanimate, usually commonplace objects but also tends to be full of disguised symbolism that uses those objects to convey a deeper meaning can be referred to as still life. This attempt at still life is an exploration of the same and coming to terms with the feelings of Abandonment and loss we feel throughout our lives and the stages it includes to get to the other side.

The presence of Persistent, traumatic grief that we feel can cause us to cycle through the different stages of emotions as given by the Swiss American Psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler Ross : Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. These stages are our attempts to process change and protect ourselves while we adapt to a new reality.
The Disenfranchisement of this grief  further alienates us from society and eventually ourselves.

This work is about Abandonment and the grief that follows with it and the convulsion of emotions  that one goes through after going through a loss which ultimately ends up with a very strenuous journey of self discovery. From the memories of my childhood and my grandparents memorabilia I have tried to explore the idea of love and  loss with the help of a 100 year old box. The box is the representation of my internal struggles and how I chose to journey with them. 

The images are printed on 8x10 inch glass plates through a process called wet plate collodion on a large format camera.
The following project was made at Maze collective studio as part of the Residency programme funded by the the Murthy nayak Foundation.